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A History of Gaming Platforms: Mattel Intellivision

The Master Component was a large, flat
rectangular box that featured brown-and-gold detailing. The two controllers
were permanently attached to the system. They consisted of thumb-operated
control discs with 16 possible movement directions, which was twice the number
of a typical joystick.

The controllers also had 12 button keypads
with two action buttons on each side. The top two action buttons were wired
together, so in actuality only three unique functions could be performed by the
four action buttons.

Finally, the control disc and action buttons could not be
used simultaneously with the keypad buttons; internally, they registered as the
same inputs.

"The Intellivision Master Component will
bring you many years of fun and excitement if you follow a few simple rules to
keep it in good condition." (from the Intellivision Owner's manual)

Because of these quirks, Intellivision controllers were
notoriously difficult to use. Although the multifunction controllers worked
well for games requiring complex input, such as the genre-defining Major League Baseball (1980), they proved sluggish for games that required
precise directional movement or timely button presses, such as the Nintendo
arcade port, Popeye
(Parker Brothers, 1983).

The heart of the Intellivision was a 16-bit microprocessor from General
Instruments -- quite a step up from most other video game and computer systems
at the time, which would continue to rely on 8-bit microprocessors for years.
The Intellivision's sound chip was also impressive, allowing output of three
distinct sound channels.

The machine also boasted a 16-color
palette, but could only display eight simultaneous moving objects onscreen.
Fortunately, clever programming could minimize this limitation on moving
objects.

At first, Mattel farmed out game programming duties to a company named
APh Technological Consulting. In 1980, an in-house development team was formed,
which came to be known as The Blue Sky Rangers.

Some of the platform's famous
controller keypad overlays were quite useful, like those for Truckin', Space
Battle, and Las Vegas Poker
& Blackjack, shown in the top row, while others, like Burgertime, Bump 'n' Jump,
and Lock 'n' Chase,
shown in the bottom row, were more for cosmetics than to serve a particular
need.

Mattel advertised aggressively in popular
magazines, and, like Atari, used television commercials as an important part of
its marketing plan. For most of the Intellivision's
original run up to 1983, Mattel employed writer George Plimpton, who became
known as "Mr. Intellivision."

Plimpton's infamous advertisements helped
promote the system and highlighted its technological advantages over Atari's Video
Computer System (VCS, aka 2600). The advertisements often featured an Intellivision game -- usually a
sports title that took full advantage of the system's capabilities -- right
next to a woefully simplistic-looking game on the VCS.